Resting for now ... Brad Haddin warming up for Eastern Suburbs on Saturday.
THE honeymoon is over for Australia's new band of selectors, who find themselves with strife on two fronts to resolve as the end of their successful debut summer approaches.
Questions are being raised about the communication between John Inverarity's panel, which has hardly put a foot wrong, and members of the national team over the implementation of its controversial rotation policy and the international future of besieged gloveman Brad Haddin.
Meanwhile, Test and ODI vice-captain Shane Watson yesterday joined the growing discontent over selectors' treatment of Haddin, calling for them to clarify their positions over Australia's premier wicketkeeper of the last four years.
Watson said he felt sorry for Haddin, whom he believes had been ''left in a bit of limbo'' in recent weeks by the selectors' decision to rest him from the first three games of the ODI series.
Haddin, who interpreted the resting as a dumping, was again overlooked earlier this week, in favour of Victoria's Matthew Wade, for matches tomorrow and on Sunday, and will instead be on the other side of the country playing Shield cricket for NSW alongside Watson.
''He doesn't know which way he's going, whether he's been rested or being dropped,'' Watson said yesterday. ''I really do feel sorry for him because someone who's played an important role over the last five years in all forms of the game for Australia, I think, definitely deserves to be told either way what his future holds.
''Because I know if I was in the same position I'd be pretty disappointed if you're being left in limbo a little bit. I think they should tell him either way [of their intentions], and that's for Test cricket also. It's important for him just to be able to know which direction he is going.
''I've been in different situations when selection you don't know exactly what's going on. But for someone who's been a big part and been the vice-captain for Australia on a number of occasions as well, I think that's what he deserves.''
Watson's comments come a day after Steve Waugh, a co-author of the Argus review, which was critical of the previous selection panel's lack of communication with players, publicly criticised selectors for their ''mixed messages'' regarding Haddin.
Selectors have stressed recently there is no plan to dump Haddin as Test wicketkeeper but while he remains favourite to get first crack at wearing the baggy green behind the stumps in the Caribbean, his odds will drift should Wade continue to impress in the three-way series.
Watson, however, said he had no issues regarding his communication with selectors. Nor does spurned vice-captain David Warner.
Warner said Inverarity called him on Monday night to explain why former captain Ricky Ponting, not him, had been chosen to stand in for injured captain Michael Clarke.
''I got a phone call from John the night before and he explained to me exactly what he said in the papers, and I was in total agreement with what he had to say, and I appreciate him making the phone call and taking the time to give me the right explanation,'' Warner said. ''I think the selectors in my case have always been thorough with me, they've said what I had to do to get back into the team, and that was two years ago with the one-day stuff as well.
''And looking to the future before I made my Test debut, they were always calling me, saying 'you're close, put some big runs on the board and you're in line'.
''They've always been thorough with me and I've respected what they've done to date by me. What they have done by the other players is obviously between them and the selectors, not me.''
Mitchell Starc voiced his opposition to the rotation policy earlier this week, as did Ryan Harris, who will miss the next two ODIs in a bid to freshen up.